Download Notes on the Roman Army: The Legion: • Roman soldiers belonged

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Notes on the Roman Army:
The Legion:
Roman soldiers belonged to fighting groups made up of about 6,000 men.
Legions were divided into eighty man unites called centuries.
Centuries were commanded by battled – hardened officers called centurions.
Training:
Centurions (only paid officers) were responsible for training their men. Each centurion was in charge of
a century which included 60 – 80 men.
Punishment included beatings and even death.
Besides weapon training:
Soldiers learned to swim, dig trenches, build bridges and erect forts.
Battle formations:
Romans developed a formation called a tortoise.
Men in the front lines stood side by side. They held their shields up in front of them. The soldiers
behind them held their shields over the men in front of them.
The shields would protect them from enemy’s arrows and spears.
The formation resembled a turtle shell.
Roman War Machines:
Onargri:
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• Means kicking donkeys
• A type of catapult
• Could hurl sixty pound rocks over a half a mile.
Flamethrowers:
• Could shoot a 12 foot burning dart up to 2,000 feet away.
• It was an innovative way of using the catapult.
Ballista:
• A type of crossbow.
• The largest ballista needed 10 men to operate.
• The ballista was loaded with:
Rocks
Pointed metal bolts which were shot out at about 115 miles per hour!
Roman war tactics:
The Romans excelled at siege warfare.
1. Surrounded towns so that inhabitants could not get out or in and were starved of food which forced them to
surrender.
2. Conquered towns with high walls by building platforms and towers to get soldiers across the walls and into the
cities.
Roman war devices:
Major Enemies of Rome:
1. The Gauls
 In 387 BCE the Gauls from northern Europe defeated the Romans and invaded Rome.
 The Gauls destroyed Rome and only the Capitoline Hill survived.
2. The Saminites
 The Saminites objected to Rome’s influence in the area and a series of wars broke out starting in 326 BCE.
In 286 BCE Rome conquered the Gauls, the Saminites and Etruscans to take control of northern and central Italy.
By 264 BCE Romans controlled all of Italy.
3. The Carthaginians – Punic (Latin for Phoenician) Wars.
Background of the Punic Wars:
 Rome was powerful in Italy.
 Carthage was a city on the North African Coast founded in 814 BCE by Phoenicians. People from Carthage called
Carthaginians controlled western Mediterranean.
 Carthage was the heart of a vast commercial empire.
There were 3 wars between Carthage and Rome starting in 264 BCE and ending in 146 BCE.
First Punic war: 264 BCE to 241 BCE
– First time Rome fought on the sea. They were victorious and took control of the Mediterranean Sea.
Second Punic war: 218 BCE to 201 BCE
– Rome faced a famous Carthaginian general named Hannibal.
– Scipio was the Roman General who defeated Hannibal.
– Hannibal won many of the battles but was eventually defeated due to some key strategic decisions by the
Roman army.
– Hannibal than fled to Egypt and finally poisoned himself so that Rome would not get the satisfaction of
defeating him.
Third Punic war: 149 BCE to 146 BC
– Even with Hannibal gone, Rome still considered Carthage a threat and chose to attack the city and it was left
the city in ruins.
Gaius Marius: Professionalized Roman Army
A) Elected as a Consul 7 times.
B) Referred to as 3rd founder of Rome
C) Roman General
Before Marius Army Reform:
The standard requirements to become a Roman soldier were very strict. To be considered a soldier in the service of the
republic, an individual was required to provide his own arms, uniform for combat and be a land owner.
Marius’s Army Reforms:
Fearing Barbarian invasions, Gaius saw that the Roman Army needed more troops.
As a consul he allowed:
Relaxed the recruitment policies by removing the necessity to own land, and allowed all Roman citizens entry, regardless of
social class (Plutarch, The Life of Marius).
The benefits of his reform to the Roman army were:
1. Being a soldier, was now a profession/job, a means for making a living.
2. The unemployed masses enlisting for military service, increasing the size of the Roman Army.
3. Poorer citizens were drawn to life-long service, as they were rewarded with the prospect of settlement in conquered
land.
4. This also 'Romanized' the population in newly conquered provinces, thus reducing unrest and lowering the chance of
revolt against the Roman Republic.
Gaius Marius caused a shift in power from the state owing the military to the military owning the state.
Soldiers now looked to their generals and no longer the Senate.
Before Gaius: After a battle was done, the Senate would dissolve the legions and the generals and they would go back to their
regular work.
After Gauis: After a battle was done, the legions were expected to stay out of Rome and they were loyal to their generals.
The Senate was scared of these generals and would send them off to faraway lands to keep them occupied. However, as time
went on more and more generals used their legions for their own power and would attack Rome causing civil wars.
Examples of these generals are:
Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix (Known as Sulla) was the first to march on Rome and cause the first civil war.
Julius Caesar –was the second to march on Rome and cause another civil war.